Profile of Top 3 SingTel Hawker Heroes

Mdm Foo Kui Lian

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
Ask Singaporeans where you can find the country’s best chicken rice and you can bet Tian Tian is going to come up quite a bit. No surprise when you consider that Madam Foo Kui Lian has been perfecting her dish since 1986.

Mr Ryan Koh

328 Katong Laksa
Intensely flavourful and wonderfully satisfying, Katong Laksa takes laksa lovers to a whole new level. All thanks to the skills of Mr Ryan Koh who obsesses over every ingredient that goes into his dish.

Mr Ang Kiam Meng

Jumbo Seafood Restaurant
If you’re a fan of crab, there’s a good chance you have spent an evening digging into Mr Ang Kiam Meng’s exquisite creations at Jumbo Seafood. His intensely flavourful chilli crab has helped take Jumbo from a humble local eatery in East Coast Park to one of our country’s most loved seafood chains.

Singapore, 3 July 2013 – Singapore has spoken! After eight days of intensive voting and over 2.5 million votes, local food lovers have chosen Mr Ang Kiam Meng from Jumbo Seafood (319,922 votes), Mdm Foo Kui Lian from Tian Tian Chicken Rice (318,151 votes), and Mr Ryan Koh from 328 Katong Laksa (316,611 votes), as their most popular hawkers.

The three will now prepare for a mouth-watering culinary cook-off against Michelin-starred heavyweight Gordon Ramsay in the SingTel Hawker Heroes cook-off.

On 5 and 6 July, Chef Ramsay will spend time with each of the three hawkers to learn their signature dishes: chicken rice, chilli crab and laksa. He will then put his own unique spin on these dishes at the final showdown event held at Newton Food Centre on Sunday, 7 July.

The event will be open to members of the public, who will be able to sample the dishes prepared by the local hawkers and Chef Ramsay and vote for their preferred version.

Event: SingTel Hawker HeroesDate/Time: Sunday, 7 July 2013From 1800hrVenue: Newton Food Centre
500 Clemenceau Avenue North Singapore 229495Details: Non-ticketed event, open to the public free of charge. 1000 servings are available on a first-come-first-served basis.

About SingTel Hawker Heroes challenge

In June, a group of Singapore’s best-known and most respected food bloggers, with the support of SingTel, challenged Michelin-starred Chef Gordon Ramsay to take on Singapore’s most beloved hawkers in a culinary contest.

Chef Ramsay accepted the challenge to pit his skills against three popular hawkers who were selected through a public poll hosted on the Hungrygowhere website.

The contest aims to determine if Singapore’s hawker fare can match up to the standards of the prestigious Michelin guide, which has become the benchmark for culinary excellence around the world.

The challenge is in response to recent concerns of a decline in local hawker culture and whether international recognition, such as Michelin-starred accreditation, would encourage fresh talent to join the trade and preserve Singapore’s hawker heritage. There has also been much debate on whether Singapore hawkers have the necessary qualities to take on Michelin-starred chefs like Gordon Ramsay.